Boys of '82 set for anniversary honour

DENNIS Mortimer will forever go down in Villa Park folklore as the man who held aloft the League Championship, the European Cup and the European Super Cup during a 10 year Villa career that saw him achieve unparalleled success.

DENNIS Mortimer will forever go down in Villa Park folklore as the man who held aloft the League Championship, the European Cup and the European Super Cup during a 10 year Villa career that saw him achieve unparalleled success.

Now "Sir Dennis", as the Holte end would have him known, is back with the entire class of 1982 and fittingly on the silver jubilee of their greatest hour he is predicting silver-laden times ahead.

The 55-year-old will be welcomed back for four days of celebration marking Villa's monumental triumph at Rotterdam against Bayern Munich.

Mortimer will be joined by Nigel Spink and Peter Withe at a supporters' forum tomorrow night.

The squad are guests of honour in the directors' box and will each be receiving commemorative medals on the pitch prior to Saturday's game against Sheffield United.

On Sunday they will be at the official opening of the club's new #12million training ground and a dinner on Monday at The Holte Suite climaxes the festivities.

Mortimer believes Martin O'Neill and Randy Lerner will bring the good times back - but he holds a word of caution that 1982 may never be repeated.

"The top four just keep moving that step further forward each year. They keep investing and the gap gets that much wider," he said. "I heard Rick Parry saying he was not satisfied with Liverpool's achievements because they didn't just want to win cups they wanted domestic honours - and they have just got to the European Cup Final, the greatest trophy of them all.

"If it were just the Champions playing then Liverpool would never be in the European Cup. It's a big problem for the rest, though. That first hurdle is a big one - to catch the top four.

"But I can see Villa winning trophies under Martin O'Neill. That's his record, but the rest of the league will always be playing catch-up to the big four and that is a sad thing. The rest are playing for the League Cup and the FA Cup.

"Don't get me wrong, the FA Cup would be a great honour. But it would only get you entry into the UEFA Cup and not the Champions League."

Mortimer amassed over 400 appearances in his time at Villa and is eager to catch up with old pals this weekend.

"From my point of view, I am just looking forward to seeing all the guys again," he said. "We held a 20th anniversary get-together but neither Jimmy Rimmer nor Ken McNaught could make it because of commitments in China and Scotland. So it will be great to get everybody together.

"You never know whether we will all be around for this to happen again in five years time. Look at Alan Ball, dead at 61. In five years a lot of our team will be that age."

Mortimer is delighted with Lerner's efforts to bring them all together.

He added: "The club themselves have pushed for this, and I am very thankful to them. They want to make people realise just how good the club once was.

"I get the impression that they like history and the part it plays at a club, and this is a nice gesture. The lads will be well pleased that they are showcasing us. For four days we will enjoy Villa's hospitality, but we are only part of the club's history.

"It was 70 years since we had won the championship, and the present regime want to bring back those glory days and this is a step towards that.

"Yes, it is looking back at the past but it is also about looking to the future and what we can achieve."

Lerner will not be at Saturday's game, nor the opening of the training ground, although his predecessor, Doug Ellis, has received an invite to the latter which he had, after all, initiated.

Mortimer is looking forward to seeing Villa in action.

"From our point of view it will be like Ron Saunders coming back to a full house before the Manchester United game in December," he said. "Probably half of them weren't even born when we won the European Cup and there will be a lot of people in the hospitality areas who were probably on the terraces and are now an integral part of the club.

"I just hope that the kind weather prevails and we have a good turnout."

Mortimer concedes Villa were far from sparkling on the night against the powerful Germans.

"Bayern Munich were the better team on the night but no one can dispute the result," he said. "For me, the Liverpool-Chelsea game was poor the other night from a footballing point of view. Manchester United would have beaten them both.

"It is never the team that you think will win that eventually does. It is the team that sticks it out and gets a run of the ball.

"And all the history books say that Aston Villa won it."

And his most glittering memory of all? Collecting the prize, of course.

"My lasting memory is of going up the steps and collecting the trophy. I had seen the trophy won by Liverpool and Nottingham Forest and couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

"There I was, waiting at the bottom of the stairs and having to wait for all the lads who were celebrating on the sides of the pitch with the fans."